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@coz1

With regards to #3, are you sure there is only one tale being told? It seems you are going for a straight-forward interpretation (dream-state), and that's also what I picked up at first, but something seemed a bit off and the more I thought about it, the middle section could be seen in a different light dealing with a separate conscious mirror-self - which is an old tale, and an old nightmare, all wrapped up in one. I'm not sure which the author intended, but it does appear to me that at least two tales are being told.
 
I am sure I didn't leave a comment. Though I might have left a note in this GTA thread, come to think of it.

It was a few years back - five at the outmost, I'd guess - and I was trying to dig up information on you and other likely GTA suspects for either misdirection purposes or to find nationality and other information to help guess, or possibly both, searching this forum.

Then I noticed you had a link to a website. So I took a gander, and what I recited above is pretty much what I remember from that short operation: US, baseball fanatic, conservative/small-c variant. And I might be wrong on the Republican variant, because I don't remember if that was stated outright or just an overall impression. But you still have the link and I checked it while writing above and the baseball stuff is still there.

So I'll stick to my guess that you wrote #1 - and if I'm wrong, then I'm impressed that we have two Americans frequenting GTA who can write such a traditional story so well.
You didn't but that's OK. You liked one of my GTA entries in the past. That's enough for me. ;)

And I'm just happy there's another baseball fan around here!

EDIT - A good point about #3. I read it as a person looking at themselves and possibly regretting not taking that turn that they think is there. Thus the mirror. I do think it is one tale being told. But the mind can vary and offer up other possibilities.
 
I am sure I didn't leave a comment. Though I might have left a note in this GTA thread, come to think of it.

It was a few years back - five at the outmost, I'd guess - and I was trying to dig up information on you and other likely GTA suspects for either misdirection purposes or to find nationality and other information to help guess, or possibly both, searching this forum.

Then I noticed you had a link to a website. So I took a gander, and what I recited above is pretty much what I remember from that short operation: US, baseball fanatic, conservative/small-c variant. And I might be wrong on the Republican variant, because I don't remember if that was stated outright or just an overall impression. But you still have the link and I checked it while writing above and the baseball stuff is still there.

So I'll stick to my guess that you wrote #1 - and if I'm wrong, then I'm impressed that we have two Americans frequenting GTA who can write such a traditional story so well.
Creepy! :p

Also yes, I thought our mirror-tale involved a switcheroo between the original person and their mirror image/doppelgänger.
 
There is a reason for this, which is that #4 is a couple of hundred words longer than the others. The author asked whether my 1–1.5k guideline was a strict rule and I decided it wasn’t (it wasn’t) – but I might be less tolerant in future if everyone starts doing it.


We actually had seven entries this time around, although one author withdrew their piece before publication.

Seeing as they’re reasonably short, I judged that it would probably be no more work to critique than four longer pieces – but I’m open to being more strict if people have a hard time getting to everything. My attitude generally is that if you want to submit, I’m not going to stop you.
I'm a big fan of not restricting numbers, however what you could do to keep things under control is, if you got say 6 or more, release them in groups of 3 or 4, allow a couple of weeks feedback, then release the next batch before a grand reveal at the end. That way the readers won't get overwhelmed and forget about the last couple, and potential writers aren't discouraged from submitting.

Word length has been about right the last couple of rounds. I wouldn't recommend going longer.
 
Ah, thanks for the reminder, Swuul. I'll get back to writing reponses. Got too caught up in AAR writing.
 
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Ah, thanks for the reminder, Swuul. I'll get back to writing reponses. Got too caught up in AAR writing.
And denying to me in a completely different thread that you didn't author #4 - well technically you claimed to not have done a Guy Gavriel Kay imitation, but as #4 is so clearly drawing on GGK influences, from the cadence of the writing style, the reference to 'Last Light of the Sun' - a novel of his about Vikings (Peter loves Vikings!) so yet another indication it's him, and so on, that the only way you didn't do a GGK imitation is if you didn't write piece #4. And as I still think that piece has both you and Kay spattered all over it, I'll stick to my guns :p.
 
And denying to me in a completely different thread that you didn't author #4 - well technically you claimed to not have done a Guy Gavriel Kay imitation, but as #4 is so clearly drawing on GGK influences, from the cadence of the writing style, the reference to 'Last Light of the Sun' - a novel of his about Vikings (Peter loves Vikings!) so yet another indication it's him, and so on, that the only way you didn't do a GGK imitation is if you didn't write piece #4. And as I still think that piece has both you and Kay spattered all over it, I'll stick to my guns :p.
That's just mean, now we have to read ALL of AARland to stay on top of GtA? :eek:
 
And denying to me in a completely different thread that you didn't author #4 - well technically you claimed to not have done a Guy Gavriel Kay imitation, but as #4 is so clearly drawing on GGK influences, from the cadence of the writing style, the reference to 'Last Light of the Sun' - a novel of his about Vikings (Peter loves Vikings!) so yet another indication it's him, and so on, that the only way you didn't do a GGK imitation is if you didn't write piece #4. And as I still think that piece has both you and Kay spattered all over it, I'll stick to my guns :p.
Your logic is faulty. The solution matrix looks like this:
  1. I might not have written an entry this round, in which case, joke's on you
  2. I might have written another entry and you are barking up the wrong tree, in which case, joke's on you
  3. I might have written #4 and not deliberately done a GGK imitation, in which case, congratulations, you have reached the right conclusion through either faulty premises, seeing GGK imitation where there is none but only similarities, or through my having accidentally or subconsciously imitated GGK
  4. I might have written #4 and lied you about not doing a GGK imitation, in which case, you've seen through my deception: well done

#4 is, it should go without saying, right out, as I do not lie.

As for the elements you point out:
  • I do indeed like GGKs novels - but this is hardly unique amongst AAR writers. If we did a poll amongst those who've written GTA entries, I would not be surprised if a majority - or at the very least a majority of those who have written fantasy-flavoured GTA or AAR entries - have read and liked GGK's novels
  • Vikings - let's take a poll of GTA writers, or AAR writers in general, on whether they like vikings or not. It is my suspicion that most do
  • Last Light of the Sun is indeed a GGK novel - and it is also a daily occurrence during dusk, and the story is clearly about Eos and Astraeus, the Greek gods of Dawn and Dusk, as anybody with deep knowledge of Greek mythology or the ability to spend 5 seconds googling can find out
  • Short sentences is not something unique to GGK and, indeed, not something I associate with his writing style in general; But you do give me an idea - perhaps I should try writing one of the stories in my Born to Breed: House of the Prophets in what I consider GGK's style. That would be a real challenge. Something to consider for a later ruler in that AAR.

I realize that nothing I write here will dissuade you from considering me the writer of #4 and, indeed, there is every reason to believe that it will encourage others to believe the same if they don't so do already. In which case, mission accomplished. :)
 
Your logic is faulty. The solution matrix looks like this:
  1. I might not have written an entry this round, in which case, joke's on you
  2. I might have written another entry and you are barking up the wrong tree, in which case, joke's on you
  3. I might have written #4 and not deliberately done a GGK imitation, in which case, congratulations, you have reached the right conclusion through either faulty premises, seeing GGK imitation where there is none but only similarities, or through my having accidentally or subconsciously imitated GGK
  4. I might have written #4 and lied you about not doing a GGK imitation, in which case, you've seen through my deception: well done

#4 is, it should go without saying, right out, as I do not lie.

As for the elements you point out:
  • I do indeed like GGKs novels - but this is hardly unique amongst AAR writers. If we did a poll amongst those who've written GTA entries, I would not be surprised if a majority - or at the very least a majority of those who have written fantasy-flavoured GTA or AAR entries - have read and liked GGK's novels
  • Vikings - let's take a poll of GTA writers, or AAR writers in general, on whether they like vikings or not. It is my suspicion that most do
  • Last Light of the Sun is indeed a GGK novel - and it is also a daily occurrence during dusk, and the story is clearly about Eos and Astraeus, the Greek gods of Dawn and Dusk, as anybody with deep knowledge of Greek mythology or the ability to spend 5 seconds googling can find out
  • Short sentences is not something unique to GGK and, indeed, not something I associate with his writing style in general; But you do give me an idea - perhaps I should try writing one of the stories in my Born to Breed: House of the Prophets in what I consider GGK's style. That would be a real challenge. Something to consider for a later ruler in that AAR.

I realize that nothing I write here will dissuade you from considering me the writer of #4 and, indeed, there is every reason to believe that it will encourage others to believe the same if they don't so do already. In which case, mission accomplished. :)
To be fair the story pinged my Peterdar, and I have never read GGK. So my money's on #3.
 
To be fair the story pinged my Peterdar, and I have never read GGK. So my money's on #3.
Well, yes, but you like fantasy and GGK's novels too, and you are another possibly author for this round's GTA, so you would, wouldn't you?
 
Well, yes, but you like fantasy and GGK's novels too, and you are another possibly author for this round's GTA, so you would, wouldn't you?
I don't know if I like GGK's books, what with having never read em.
 
Last Light of the Sun is indeed a GGK novel - and it is also a daily occurrence during dusk, and the story is clearly about Eos and Astraeus, the Greek gods of Dawn and Dusk, as anybody with deep knowledge of Greek mythology or the ability to spend 5 seconds googling can find out
I’m guessing I’m the only one who reads “Last Light of the Sun” and immediately goes to Janis Ian? :p

Good discussion, folks. Thanks to @Swuul for giving the proverbial shove up the backside.
 
Just to be clear I don't think that piece was written by Peter because of the GGK similarities - when the manager got thrown out the window, that's where I pinned it all on Peter :p. The reason I associate the piece with Kay is due to the short sentences and tense. GGK will switch to that for short chapters where he wants to bring heightened focus or tension to something, so in 'Last Light of the Sun' if I remember correctly, all the encounters with the Fay are done in that style, and in 'A Song for Arbonne', anything on the mystical side around the Goddess Rian is the same, and Rosala's flight from Gorhaut.

Anyway if it's pure coincidence, so be it. Do any other Kay fans see it?
 
  1. I might not have written an entry this round, in which case, joke's on you
You always drum on how you never lie (but how you don't always tell the full truth). And then we have this:
I didn't do any GGK imitation in the entry I wrote.
So either you this time are lying (either about not having written an entry, or that you wrote an GGK imitation) or you are telling the truth in which case you did write something (which of course might still be #4, but not written as an GGK imitation). I am going with the second option (as I have no reason to believe you would all of the sudden start lying after all these years).

As we have six entries and ten names on the potential authors list (of which one seems to be my name, and I might have a good guess if I indeed wrote all of the stories as claimed by a few posters here), and we now know for guaranteed Peter is one of the authors. All I have figure out now who the remaining five authors are from the short list. That is pretty easy in fact! Oh, and of course then connect the correct names with the correct stories, which shouldn't be that much of a hassle.
 
A lot of misdirection and guesswork, but not much in the way of critiques. ;)

I will say that I have never read GGK, nor do I care much about Vikings and certainly not so much short sentences (Hemingway is over-rated!) I guess that rules me out for #4. :p
 
A lot of misdirection and guesswork, but not much in the way of critiques. ;)

I will say that I have never read GGK, nor do I care much about Vikings and certainly not so much short sentences (Hemingway is over-rated!) I guess that rules me out for #4. :p
You did scare them all away. They all are prolly now running in the hills, screaming in terror, never to be seen here again :( How can somebody not care much about Vikings??? :eek: